The forgotten corner

Nestled at the end of the Rame Peninsula in South East Cornwall, Torpoint and its neighbouring villages were home to us last weekend, when we left London and travelled down to the coast to celebrate Andy and Juan’s wedding. We arrived at our B&B in Sheviock late on Friday night, and even in the darkness, or maybe especially in the darkness, the peace and beauty of the place was striking.

The Sheviock Barton B&B

Despite arriving a bit later than anticipated (we had to stop in a brilliantly primal village pub, where we were bundled into a back room to watch the football with a couple of the local ale-drinkers), we decided to go for a little drive up to Maker Heights, where the weekend’s celebrations were being held. Although things were winding down, and the camping guests were off to their tents for the night, a few lamps were still aglow and it gave us a nice chance to have a nose around and say a quick hello to the grooms before their big day.

And the big day itself was a big day indeed. Seeing the setting in daylight was breathtaking. Maker Heights is officially an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and its views over the bays of surrounding coves were just beautiful, especially in the glorious sunshine. The ceremony itself was the most moving exchanging of vows I’ve ever experienced. With their own words and passages and poems from friends that obviously really meant something to them, I was in tears from start to finish at the love and intimacy that was being shared between them and everyone. For me, it really held a poignancy of what a marriage should be about. It’s not about a man and a woman churning out a generic list of ‘promises’, but rather, an exchange of trust and true love between two people who already share that. Andy and Juan captured so beautifully all of the things that are important to me in a relationship; friendship, laughter, love, care and understanding – all of which they ooze individually, and even more so together.

The day’s delights certainly didn’t stop there – there were lots of heartfelt speeches, the little children at the wedding worked hard all morning and put on a gorgeous pagan ritual for the couple, where they danced around them with hand-crafted symbols of the elements; earth, wind, fire and water, to bless their marriage. In fact, what was really lovely was how so many of their friends contributed to their marriage, with three of them serenading us with two violins and a bass clarinet, in the form of Hayden, followed by When I Fall in Love, and finally the love theme from the Italian film, Cinema Paradiso (my favourite film!), which I have found an orchestra clip of to share with you below..

A delicious (and hot!) South Indian meal, courtesy of Chennai Dosa, was the next treat for everyone, followed by dancing and flame throwing, in keeping with the constant entertainment of the day. Christian and I (and I expect every other guest for that matter) headed home feeling lovely and warm inside, and above all, very very happy for Andy and Juan – two lovely people who deserve all the happiness in the world.

Sunday was wedding-wind down day, and time to come home, but before the long slog down the motorway, we mooched through a little coastal town called Kingsand, which was again breathtaking. The waters were beautifully clear and enticed us in for a paddle, before tucking in to some super fresh fish and chips and some proper Cornish ice cream. De-lish.

Kingsand

Today I’m going to leave you with a small passage from The House at Pooh Corner, by A A Milne, which made for a really sweet reading at the wedding on Saturday:

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.

“Pooh,” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw, “I just wanted to be sure of you.”

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